Coaster vehicle

ABSTRACT

The invention herein disclosed relates to a coaster vehicle comprising a body having a rider compartment with handrails running along the top lateral edges of said compartment. The body of the vehicle is continuously curved upwardly and outwardly in transverse cross-section and decreases in width from the rear to the front. Mounted on transverse axes adjacent to the front and rear end of the body and projecting outwardly through openings in the bottom thereof are spherical rollers, the centers of which lie in the longitudinal vertical plane of the vehicle. By reason of these spherical rollers the vehicle will operate on a surface having a high coefficient of friction. Steering is effected by the rider leaning to one side or the other to effect drag of the bottom portion of the vehicle.

United States Patent [451 June 20, 1972 Aarup [54] COASTER VEHICLE [72]Inventor: Carl P. Aarup, Springfield, 111.

[73] Assignee: Dura Corporation, Springfield, I11.

[22] Filed: Jan. 29, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 110,971

[52] US. Cl. ..280/87.01 280/87.04 A

[51] Int. Cl ..B62k 9/00 [58] Field oi Search ..280/87.01, 87.02, 87.04,87.04 A, 280/205 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS D2l4,l775/1969 Greer... ..34/15 2,589,182 3/1952 Zarat ..280/87.01

3,220,744 11/1965 Gomory ..280/87.01 X

3,310,320 3/1967 Hanna et al ..280/87.04

3,399,904 9/ 1968 Schinke ..280/87.04 A

5 Primary Examiner--Le0 Friaglia Attomey-Hill, Sherman, Meroni, Gross &Simpson 57 ABSTRACT The invention herein disclosed relates to a coastervehicle comprising a body having a rider compartment with handrailsrunning along the top lateral edges of said compartment. The body of thevehicle is continuously curved upwardly and outwardly in transversecross-section and decreases in width from the rear to the front. Mountedon transverse axes adjacent to the front and rear end of the body andprojecting outwardly through openings in the bottom thereof arespherical rollers, the centers of which lie in the longitudinal verticalplane of the vehicle. By reason of these spherical rollers the vehiclewill operate on a surface having a high coefficient of friction.Steering is efiected by the rider leaning to one side or the other toeffect drag of the bottom portion of the vehicle.

6 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures COASTER VEHICLE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONSUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It has been known in the art to provide coastervehicles having Cylindrical rollers projecting from the bottoms thereofin order to permit operation over a surface having a high coefficient offriction. Such vehicles, however, have been hard to steer becauseofresistance to tilting interposed by such cylindrical rollers. Coastervehicles with upwardly and outwardly curved bodies but withoutanti-friction means are also known in the art. With such bodies it hasbeen necessary to provide a series of generally parallel ribs or runnersextending longitudinally of the exterior of the vehicle body in order toeffect the.

lateral holding required to effect proper steering. Such structures arecomplicated and expensive in that the bodies cannot readily be producedby a stamping or molding operation.

This invention overcomes the foregoing difficulties by providing areadily moldable vehicle body portion which decreases inwidth from rearto front and which is curved upwardly and outwardly relative to thetransverse cross-section and which has a smooth uninterrupted exteriorsurface. Tilting of the .vehicle body to effect steering is facilitatedby the spherical rollers projecting through the body with their centerslocated in the longitudinal vertical plane of the vehicle. Since suchtilting causes contact to be made over a larger area at the rear of thevehicle steering is further facilitated.

It is an object, therefore, of the present invention to provide acoaster vehicle which may be producedat a relatively low cost and whichis readily and effectively steerable by the tilting or shifting ofweight of the riders body. It is a further object of this invention toprovide a readily tiltable coaster vehicle which will operate oversurfaces having a high coefficient of friction.

Other and further objects of this invention will be apparent from thespecification and the accompanying drawings in which the invention isshown in a preferred form.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a coastervehicle embodying the principles of this invention with the sphericalanti-friction rollers shown in dotted lines and with a part insection-'showing-a method of mounting the front friction roller.

FIG. 2 is a side elevation of the view shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a transverse section on the line IIIIII of FIG. 1 with dottedlines showing contact of the bottom of the vehicle body when the same istilted for steering.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Reference numeral 1 indicates abody potion which as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 is curved upwardly andoutwardly from the center line of its bottom and which as shown in FIG.1 decreases in width from the rear to the front end thereof (from leftto right as viewed in FIG. 1). This body portion 1 is made of anyrelatively strong lightweight material, as, for example, from stampedstainless steel or from a molded plastic incorporating chopped glassfibers which add to the strength thereof. The method of stamping ormolding the body portion forms no part of this invention and since suchmethods are well known in the art they need not be described furtherherein.

Affixed to or molded with the body memberv 1 is a hood-like nose portion2 which covers the front of the vehicle and a boxlike seat portion 3 atthe rear of the vehicle. At either side of the vehicle and spaced fromthe upper edge of the body 1 running generally from the seat portion 3to the nose portion 2 are handrails 4 to be grasped by the rider asdesired during operation of the vehicle. Joumaled within the seatportion 3 on brackets 5 is a rear anti-friction roller 6 rotatable on anaxis 7 transverse of the vehicle body with its center line in the lon- 2gitudinalvertical plane of the vehicle body. This anti-friction sheric'al roller -6 may be made of relatively hard molded p astrc orstamped from hollow metal, as may be desired, the

requirement being that it be wear-resistant and relatively light inweight. Also mounted in the central longitudinal plane of the vehiclebody at the front end thereof is a similar anti-friction sphericalroller 8 which is rotatable on a transverse axis 9 supported by brackets10 secured at the sides of the vehicle body inside the nose portion 2thereof. As a result the body when in upright position is carried on twospherical rollers mounted in its longitudinal vertical plane. Theprovision of such rollers facilitates movement of the coaster vehicleover surfaces having a relatively high coefficient of friction, such,for example, as grass covered or bare ground, concrete sidewalks or thelike. As will be apparent from FIG. 3, the body of the vehicle isreadily tiltable about its longitudinal vertical axis on the tilt pivotsprovided by the spherical rollers 6 and 8 and when so tilted arelatively wide portion of th'e'body member 1 will contact a surface onwhich the vehicle is operating thus tending to brake movement of thatside of the vehicle toward which the body is tilted and tocause thefront end of the vehicle to turn in that direction. Because of thedecreasing width of the vehicle from front to rear a greater portion ofthe steering effort is effective at the rear of the vehicle, thisfurther facilitating the turning of the nose portion in a desireddirection.

The coaster vehicle of this invention is thus one which will operateeither on snow or "ice or other surfaces having low coefficients offriction or upon grass covered or bare ground or concrete having highercoefficients of friction in which case, except during steering, thespherical rollers pennit of ready coasting operation whereas in snowthose rollers do not objectionably impede progress even when portions ofthe bottom of the body portion rest against the snow.

The vehicle of this invention is thus readily steerable and is operableover a wide variety of surfaces. As constructed, either of stampedstainless steel or similar material or of molded plastic reinforced bychopped glass fibers, the vehicle is lightweight and strong and may beproduced at relatively low cost.

..I am aware that details of the present invention may be varied and I,therefore, do not purpose limiting the patent granted hereon otherwisethan necessitated by the scope of the appended claims.

I'claim:

1. In a coaster vehicle,

an open top body member curved upwardly and outwardly about a medianbottom line,

spherical anti-friction rollers mounted on transverse axes in said bodymember adjacent the ends thereof with their centers in the longitudinalvertical central plane of said body member and projecting throughopenings in the bottom of said body member so that the vehicle inupright position is supported by said rollers'for coasting movementthereon and so that when the body member is tilted to one side itsbottom will contact the surface on which thevehicle is moving to effectsteering of the vehicle.

2. A vehicle as defined in claim 1, wherein thebody member decreasesinwidth from the rear to the front end thereof.

3. A vehicle as defined in claim 1, wherein the body member is providedwith a handrail at each side of the top portion thereof.

4. A vehicle asdefined in claim 1, wherein the body member is providedwith a seat member at the rear end thereof above the spherical roller atthat end.

5. A vehicle as defined in claim 2, wherein the narrow front end of thebody member is providedwith a covering nose

1. In a coaster vehicle, an open top body member curved upwardly andoutwardly about a median bottom line, spherical anti-friction rollersmounted on transverse axes iN said body member adjacent the ends thereofwith their centers in the longitudinal vertical central plane of saidbody member and projecting through openings in the bottom of said bodymember so that the vehicle in upright position is supported by saidrollers for coasting movement thereon and so that when the body memberis tilted to one side its bottom will contact the surface on which thevehicle is moving to effect steering of the vehicle.
 2. A vehicle asdefined in claim 1, wherein the body member decreases in width from therear to the front end thereof.
 3. A vehicle as defined in claim 1,wherein the body member is provided with a handrail at each side of thetop portion thereof.
 4. A vehicle as defined in claim 1, wherein thebody member is provided with a seat member at the rear end thereof abovethe spherical roller at that end.
 5. A vehicle as defined in claim 2,wherein the narrow front end of the body member is provided with acovering nose member.
 6. A vehicle as defined in claim 1, wherein thebody member is of one-piece molded or stamped construction having acontinuously smooth outer surface.